Review: 'A Prophet' dishonorable and doing time

Tahar Rahim (l.) and Niels Arestrup in "A Prophet"Prison, we have long been told, can turn an amateur criminal into a seasoned pro, but too often the details of that dire process are left to the imagination. They don’t actually offer classes in, oh, armed robbery or corrupting officials in there, do they?

Well, in a sense they do, and “A Prophet,” a chillingly good film by director/co-writer Jacques Audiard (“The Beat That My Heart Skipped”) tracks that grim process with deftness, intelligence and fine craft. Indeed, it’s a testament to how well the picture is made that we find ourselves unconsciously rooting for our young protagonist to learn his craft -- until we snap awake and remember what exactly his craft is.

When we meet Malik (Tahar Rahim), he’s a petty thief newly arrived in a penitentiary and bullied and threatened by gangs of Corsican and Arabic inmates (coincidentally, he’s of mixture of the two heritages). Seen as entirely disposable by everyone, he’s gobbled up by César, a jailed Mafia kingpin, and told he must commit a murder to stay alive. With no choice but to comply, Malik makes an awful, awful mess of the thing, but he succeeds, ultimately, and by so doing demonstrates an aptness that gives César the notion to take him on as a lackey.

This is the start of Malik’s education, not only in the ways of powerful criminals and crooked prison officials, but in some of the more basic aspects of life. One of these is literacy, which he learns through the foster attentions of a kindly Arab prisoner who’s not afraid to befriend him. Eventually, availing himself of his connections, juggling both strains of his bloodline, and delicately balancing his ties to both the Corsicans and the Arabs, Malik manages to build himself into a man of his own.

Rahim plays Malik as a man of internal conflicts and divisions who nevertheless maintains a placid front. We know he’s roiling and torn and, frequently, terrified, but he’s nothing if not self-possessed, and he only lets down his guard fully when he’s completely alone -- except, of course, for Audriard’s camera, which grants us privileged, if silent, access to Malik’s often turbulent emotions.

In some ways, the screenplay (which Audiard cowrote with at least three others) is clinical, isolating the moments, both large and subtle, in which Malik learns, or changes, or gains or loses an important something. But there’s poetry here, too, as in the visitations of the haunted spirit of the man whom Malik has killed, a specter who arises at Malik’s weakest moments and seems, ambiguously, equally eager to help his murderer learn and progress as to seek vengeance.

Malik’s key relationship is with César, and Niels Arestrup is absolutely brilliant in the role: powerful, menacing, only slightly cultured, and going slowly to seed. César is surrounded by goons and contemptuous of the authorities he’s bribed, a modern-day Napoleon with a much smaller empire and a far less potent army at his disposal. Arestrup is actually an elegant actor, but here he’s all sweat and muscle-gone-to-flab and frustrated energy. It’s great.

“A Prophet” is long and sometimes grueling, but it never feels indulgent or excessive. In order to be subtle about the horrifying transformation he records, Audiard needs to let it unfold slowly, so that only when we reach the end can we see Malik as a new man who has come unimaginably -- and terribly -- far. Another filmmaker might have cut corners, but as we have it here, the time it takes to see this particular metamorphosis occur is time well spent.